The READY Study

Year 2 – Report 2021

Introduction

The READY study (Recording Emerging Adulthood in Deaf Youth) is a 6-year study funded by the National Deaf Children’s Society and led by the Universities of Manchester and Edinburgh.

It follows up a cohort of diverse deaf young people over a 4 to 5 year period who were first recruited when they were between 15 and 19 years old. Young people face many challenges and changes during this period as they transition to new educational environments, enter the workplace, explore their identity, start to live independently and make choices about how they want to shape their future.

This project is investigating the risk and protective factors for deaf young people achieving happy, independent, fulfilled adult lives. What enables them to overcome obstacles and what promotes well-being are important aspects of the study.

In this second annual summary report, we are particularly focussing on young people’s health, mental well-being and self-determination. All of these outcomes are closely related to attainment in school and in post-school education/training, opportunities in employment, active participation in society and quality of life.

Explore more sections

• Who is in the study?
• How are we collecting data?
• Language and communication
• Social networks, friendships and isolation
• Subjective well-being
• Health
• Self-determination
• Interactions between health, subjective wellbeing and self-determination
• Minority sexuality
• Some implications of early findings
• Into the future